"Hostages in our own land"

Every morning at 8 a.m. Honoré Zon pedals his bicycle out to the village of Fengolo to work in his cocoa fields. As dusk approaches he knows it is time to leave when he hears the trucks.

“When I hear the noise of the vehicles of the United Nations soldiers I run to my bicycle and I follow them to Duekoué,” said Zon. “Many other people do the same as me. That is how we’re able to return to our homes without worrying.”

Zon and other local residents say they follow the UN peacekeeping convoy to avoid being harassed, robbed or otherwise assaulted by criminals, including members of various militia groups operating in the area.

Western Côte d’Ivoire, including the area around Duekoué, is one of the most insecure regions in the country, according to humanitarian officials. Although the government of President Laurent Gbagbo installed a military administration in the region after inter-ethnic clashes in 2005, banditry remains a serious problem. In addition, ethnic tension persists, feeding a pervasive sense of insecurity among the local population.

“The strong military presence might have contributed to discourage the warlike passions of certain people but it has not succeeded in restoring confidence between one another,” said Arsène Kpan, a restaurant manager in Duekoué.

Ethnic tension

The problems in western Côte d’Ivoire largely stem from two sources: tension between indigenous ethnic groups and settlers, and banditry. Several pro-government militia groups, including ex-fighters from Liberia, formed in the region ostensibly to fight northern-based rebels after a failed coup attempt in 2002 triggered a brief civil war. They have weapons and no legitimate means of income. Efforts to disarm them so far have failed.

“We are hostages in our own region,” said Zon, the farmer. “I prefer to live in this insecurity than know misery in a centre for displaced people.”

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in Cote d’Ivoire since the conflict erupted in 2002. Since then, the country has been divided between a rebel-held north and government-run south, including the area around Duekoué, about 400km northwest of the main city, Abidjan. Some 11,000 UN and French peacekeepers monitor a buffer zone between the two sides.

Most of the people who live in the area around Duekoué earn their living from coffee and cocoa farming. Settlers outnumber indigenous residents and include people from Burkina Faso, Mali and other countries as well as migrant Sénoufos, Yacoubas, Baoulés and Dioulas. Most of the indigenous residents are of the Guere ethnic group.

As Côte d’Ivoire’s economy began to deteriorate at the end of the 1980s with a fall in international prices for coffee and cocoa, relations between migrant and indigenous groups grew tense over competition for resources. Clashes between Dioulas and Gueres left more than 100 people dead in June 2005.

“At the moment the situation is calm but it’s unpredictable,” said Francois Sonon, head of the UN humanitarian coordination office (OCHA) in Duekoué. “We know that everything can degenerate at any moment.”

New peace deal

The 2005 clashes go to the heart of the Ivorian crisis. National identity is a key issue that is to be addressed through public hearings to provide thousands of Ivorians with proper identity documents ahead of elections scheduled before the end of the year. A new peace deal signed between the government and rebels earlier this month provides for this identification process to resume after it was interrupted late last year by the government.

At the same time, rebels failed to disarm in line with a UN-backed peace accord. The new agreement between the government and rebels provides for the installation of an Integrated Command Centre to coordinate a combined force of rebel and government troops to demobilise militias from both sides.

Units of the new force are also to patrol a “green line” that is to replace the buffer zone dividing the north and the south. The accord calls for UN and French peacekeepers to withdraw half of their remaining troops every two months to complete their pull-out by the end of the year. Several previous peace accords have failed.

“This time we think that it will be the last [accord],” said mechanic Bruno Kouassi. “In four years the country has declined a lot. We here can no longer endure what we’re going through. Today everyone is left to himself. If the Ouagadougou Accord is to return peace then it is necessary that the signatories truly engage themselves for the interests of the people.”

Pervasive crime

In the meantime, the residents of the Duekoué region say they try to manage the best they can in the face of constant insecurity.

The rights group Amnesty International earlier this month called attention to the problem of sexual violence in Côte d’Ivoire, particularly in the western region. In one of the most recent attacks, the body of an unidentified young girl was recently discovered among banana trees in the center of Duekoué, authorities said. No one had identified her.

Last month a group of five men armed with AK-47s attacked two transportation vehicles and robbed the occupants. The next morning, armed men stopped another vehicle by shooting out its tires and robbed the driver and occupants. Three people were injured.

“We no longer know what to think,” said Alice Gnaou, a trader on the Bangolo-Duekoué route. “During the trip the passengers are always consumed with stress. It is rare that the person sitting next to you will even speak because nobody knows at what moment danger might arrive.”

aa/cs/vj